Communications

We believe that individual privacy and government transparency are the cornerstones of Freedom and Liberty. This is why we oppose communication surveillance and government censorship and support internet freedom and net neutrality.

Internet Freedom

We believe in a free and open Internet, and back the principles of Internet governance espoused by the Declaration of Internet Freedom. Aspects of these principles are also expanded upon below.

Access

In a connected future, Internet access is a basic right. Moving the process of government and democracy online requires that all homes be connected to high-speed broadband services to ensure equality of access. We will extend the requirement on basic, affordable telephony to broadband to help ensure homes have sufficient access to the Internet and to keep pace with the connected digital economy.

We will require all UK Internet Service Providers to provide IPv6 connections to home and business users by 20201.

Security

It is essential to protect the security of networked communications, for the good of citizens and businesses. Legislating against secure encryption is not only undesirable, but unworkable (not to mention mathematically impossible). We will remove any existing legislation requiring the creation of “backdoors” into encryption tools or technology platforms, in order to protect citizen and business data.

Surveillance

All communications (whether physical or digital) by individuals and groups, should be considered inviolably private and free from state surveillance (or surveillance by agents or companies working on behalf of, or at the behest of, the State) without a judicially approved warrant in relation to a specific threat.

We will also repeal in full the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, which mandates that ISPs log all connection records of UK citizens, and allows the government to lie in court about evidence and the manner through which it was gathered.

We will limit the use of behavioural data collected as people use services2. Advertising using such data must be targetted strictly to the content, not the user. We will introduce a 30 day time limit on storing such behavioural data and people will have the right to opt out of the collection of that data, while continuing to use the services. We will ban the sale or transfer of behavioural data, including to third-party advertising networks.

Additionally, we will repeal the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, which mandates that ISPs fit equipment to facilitate surveillance, allows police and other institutions to demand that someone hand over encryption keys or passwords to protected information, and to prevent the existence of interception warrants and any data collected from being revealed in court.

We will oppose any further efforts to introduce blanket retention legislation which compromises the fundamental right to privacy.

Censorship

Remove all government-mandated filtering of Internet content, and make censorship by the government unconstitutional.

ISPs may give users the option to apply content filters on their connections, and even enable them by default if they wish, but filter lists must be openly published, and subject to review and appeal through OFCOM.

Net Neutrality

Enshrine net neutrality in law, protecting the fundamental principle of the free and open web. Internet Service Providers should treat all network data equally, without restriction or throttling based on the type of content, the content provider, or any other criterion. The appropriate regulatory body (currently OFCOM) would be responsible for enforcing this policy and dealing with breaches.

Investment In The Net

We will provide grants to organisations that are working on alternative projects to the clearnet, such as i2p, TOR, file-transfer applications such as torrent clients, and decentralised web projects. If these projects are going to be shutdown before completion and it can be determined that it was not due to the failure of the project itself, the rights will be bought, and the code, CAD diagrams, and other materials will be placed in the public domain after formally disclaiming the copyright. This way, progression in network science cannot be hindered by funding and at the expense of innovation and invention.